“Are you okay?” he asks.
I shake my head. Okay? I’d killed someone, taken their life without a single regret. Did that make me as bad as them? How could I go on living knowing I had taken a life? It wasn’t about Jason and what he’d done, it was the fact that I’d been the one to take a life. What did it say about me?
“What about the other one?” Andrei asks, pulling me against his chest.
This time, I welcome his strong arms around my body and I bury my face against him. I inhale his scent and allow it to calm my nerves.
“You don’t have to do it. I will kill him if you want me to. Just say the word, and it’s done.” Andrei comments like it is nothing to him. As if he can kill anyone, anywhere, at any time, and still feel no guilt for doing so. “Sage, you need to tell me what to do, but I am not letting him go. Do you want to do it, or do you want me to?” Andrei asks again.
Bile rises in my throat all over again, I can’t do it. I was full of rage, but now the anger has died down and the intensity faded. I don’t think I would be able to do it.
“It’s ok if you can’t do it. It doesn’t make you weak, Sage. They can never hurt you again, and I would never let them touch you,” Andrei whispers so softly that I can’t hold myself back from looking up at him.
As our eyes meet, his thumb brushes over my bottom lip. His touch is just as gentle as the tone he’s using.
“Do you want me to kill him?” He whispers, and I nod.
He stands, scoops me up with him, and walks toward the stairs leading into the house. I press against his chest and he glances down at me. Meeting his eyes, I shake my head. I’ve already gone down this path, I need to see it through. “I want to watch the life fade from his eyes too, to know he’s dead and will never come back,” I whisper.
Andrei takes a breath, sucking in his bottom lip as his eyes study mine for any doubt. He nods and gently sets me down on the bottom of the steps. I remain still, frozen in place as he turns and stalks toward a long table in the corner.
He takes his time in deciding his weapon of choice and grabs it, though I’m too far away to see what it is that he clutches, and he approaches the screaming and sobbing Pablo.
Mom used to cry like that. I band my arms over my middle and lean closer. Whatever happens, he deserves it, and if I’m going to have my soul tainted for one, then both need to suffer.
Andrei grabs a fistful of Pablo’s hair and lifts the sobbing man’s chin. The screams are gone, all that leaves Pablo now are jumbled pleas for mercy.
“Close your eyes, Sage, you don’t have to watch,” Andrei offers, his attention focused on my past tormentor.
Sucking in a shuddering breath, I force my eyes closed. I didn’t need to see the moment he died, just the aftermath of it. A second later, a machine whirs to life as a saw meets a thin layer of flesh, and then the chink of blades against bone before a gurgling sound fills the room and a loud thud.
I open my eyes and my mate stands over Pablo’s body, he’s covered in my tormentor’s blood, and in his hands, dangling by a fistful of hair, Pablo’s head swings. It’s no longer attached to his foul body.
The glaze of death has taken Pablo away and his pale lifeless skin lets me do one thing I haven’t done in years, breathe.
Andrei drops the severed head on the table and turns to use the sink to wash his hands and arms. A part of me points out I should be terrified at this brutality, but instead of fear, there’s a sick sense of calm settles over me.
He stays silent as he removes his shirt and walks over to the corner of the room at the far back. It takes me a moment to notice what it is. At first, I thought it was like a pizza oven, but with the light on, it is obviously an incinerator. Flames surge inside, dancing as it waits to be fed.
Andrei turns it on before walking back to the table and kicking the wheels. He is focused on the task, so serious, that it looks like he has done this a million times before. He wheels the steel table over to it, then opens the door to the incinerator.
Andrei doesn’t hear the quiet gasp that leaves me once blistering heat washes over me from where I sit on the steps. He gathers both bodies, tosses them in like they weigh nothing, and shuts the door.
He doesn’t even notice the burns on his hands. Sure, the burns heal quickly, but it still makes me shudder.
I remain silent as my eyes follow him moving around the basement as if this is his second home.
Andrei wheels both steel tables back and quickly locks them back in place. He then grabs a bottle of bleach, opens it, and pours it on everything. I understand why I caught the stench of the bleach from the very moment he brought me here. Andrei uses it to clean this place.
Once he is finally done and looks satisfied with the outcome, Andrei grabs his shirt and tosses it in the incinerator just before it cuts off. He opens the door to check on the progress and smiles once he makes sure there’s nothing left.
He turns off the lights and walks over to me. All this time, I sit frozen, watching him walk around calmly, cleaning up like he is doing the dishes and not mopping up blood after slaughtering someone.
Andrei grabs me under the arms, lifting me, and I wrap my arms around his neck and snuggle close. A sudden sense of calmness overtakes me as I lean on him and my legs wrap around his waist, and he walks up the steps. “They will never hurt you again, now let’s go take a shower,” he whispers, pressing his lips to my cheek briefly.
I nod against his shoulder and let out a shaky breath. They will never hurt me again.